The social construction of home

Abstract

An adequate theory of the meaning of home must explain it as a complex , multi-leveled or multi-dimensional construct with a specific internal unity determined by relations at and among different levels or dimensions . Home is physically ; psychologically , and socially constructed in both real and ideal forms, and the different types of construction always occur in combination , as part of a single process . Beginning with a review of empirical and theoretical literature on the meaning of home , this paper develops a multi-disciplinary hybrid approach whicĶ it is argued , is necessary for the formulation of such an adequate theory. Following this approacĶ an attempt is made to show how each individual meaning of home , such as privacy or identity or familiarity , can be internally explicated as a physical/psychological/social construct and related to the wider complex of which it is an integral pari